Where Can I Learn Tarot Card Reading Meanings?
Online and Print References for Tarot Card Readers
Are you looking to expand your knowledge of tarot card meanings? Tarot card decks are usually accompanied by a book or pamphlet with interpretations of the meaning of the cards. If you purchased a used deck it might be missing the original booklet. These books and booklets can be helpful, but they do not contain an exhaustive listing of all possible meanings for every card. Of course, books will have more in-depth descriptions while pamphlets will only be able to populate brief interpretations. If you want to expand your vocabulary of tarot card interpretations, here are some tips for both online and print sources:
Search Online
A simple Google or other search engine search in which you look for the card you received after shuffling can yield many choices. For instance, if you shuffled a deck and the “Star” card rose to the top, you could search for “star tarot”. I would suggest trying different sites and seeing which ones resonate most with you. A couple of examples of these sites would be BiddyTarot.com, TheTarotGuide.com, or Labyrinthos.co. Labyrinthos and The Tarot Guide offer not only upright and reversed meanings for the cards, but also divide those interpretations into categories of love, career, and finance. The design of this site includes a list of seventy-eight card images with general meanings but if you click on a card of your choice, you will also be able to read an extended description.
Look in Books
If you have access to more than one deck, and those decks include books, you can use the descriptions that authors wrote for any seventy-eight-card tarot decks. The meanings cross over from deck to deck and the more books you read, the better. For instance, I used to work with The Shapeshifter Tarot deck and applied some of the meanings I learned in that guidebook to readings I later undertook with the Rider-Waite deck.
Practise Readings and Learn from Your Querents
The more I have practised, the more I have learned. There is no substitute for the practical learning experience of reading for and interacting with someone who is seeking the answer to a question. Over the years, I have added additional meanings to my tarot vocabulary based on what the cards showed me after a querent (the person asking a question and/or seeking a reading) contributed to the conversation while we investigated potential interpretations together. The people I have read for taught me more about the meanings of the cards and the many ways they work than any book ever has. Of course, books are helpful and needed, too, but there is nothing like the social and spiritual aspects of human interaction for expediting the learning process.
Use Your Intuition to Make Connections and Answer Questions
No matter what you learn online, in books, and from previous experiences of providing readings for friends and clients, you will ultimately be guided by your intuition as every situation is different. If a card is telling you something but your intuition is adding to or even challenging that knowledge, see how what you already knew about the meaning of the card intersects with what your inner guidance is offering you now. If you are open to intuition, instinct, or psychic channeling and you also have the knowledge of the cards, there is virtually no limit to what you can offer to those you read for. That being said, in addition to psychic abilities and an understanding of the cards, you will need the following traits in order to be an effective and helpful tarot card reader:
1) Your intentions need to be pure. In other words, you can’t have a personal motive when giving someone answers to their questions. Personal bias is one reason why it is easier to read for people if you are not particularly involved in their personal lives.
2) Your ego needs to be set aside if you want to see the answers to someone’s questions clearly. As soon as you are thinking about or focusing on yourself or how you are being perceived, the information you could potentially access during a reading will become limited.
3) Approach tarot card readings in the spirit of service. If you are there to help, the spirit world will help you help others.
What Are Your Thoughts on Readings Generated by Tarot Software and Websites?
Would you like to have a reading from a robot? I suppose there are times when I’d rather have an AI reading than none at all. The problem with software algorithms intersecting with the mystery of spirituality is that human interpretation, experience, and intuition are not able to be accessed through technological mediums. At least not yet.
That being said, I have tried sites like facade.com for answering questions about my own life when I don’t have a tarot deck in front of me. However, I have never used facade.com or any other software when reading for a client. I am not recommending this or other tarot-generating sites, but rather speaking from experience. I don’t find online readings to be as accurate as when someone else reads for me or even when I read for myself with a physical deck, although I still think it’s fun to check out those sites. I just don’t take the answers very seriously. Overall, online readings don’t provide me with as much insight as I would get from pulling a single card myself, even when considering that it is not as easy to read for myself as it is to read for others. The best readings I have had were from other readers who used a combination of physical decks and their own psychic abilities.
Another reason that I don’t invest my hopes in tarot software as much as in readings with physical decks is that I have wondered if there is an algorithm related to how many times I ask for a similar type of reading (e.g. Renaissance Tarot deck + Celtic Cross spread). I don’t know the answer to this; it’s more of a question that I have and it might depend on what site or software you are using. For instance, if I’m requesting the same deck and spread from the drop-down menus yet asking a different question each time, and I often yield similarly positive or negative cards multiple times in a row, this resultant pattern might make me question whether or not the outcome is random.
Moreover, if I close that tab or browser and reopen that same site in another tab or browser and ask the same questions, will I get a different answer? Even if I am asking the same question with the same deck and spread request as before, the results in a new tab or browser on that same site might suddenly switch over to different or even more positive answers, particularly since the system doesn’t calculate that I am going back, again and again, to possibly ask the same question because I want to yield a different result.
Even if there is not an algorithm that might be manipulating outcomes, would a randomly-generated reading be any more accurate than one in which a software algorithm was implemented? Conversely, when I use a physical deck, there is an element of spontaneity (cards can fall or the same ones could rise to the top again and again) that tends to support increased accuracy.
Overall, do you prefer learning tarot card meanings online, in print, intuitively, through the experience of reading for others, or as a combination of any of these potential educational methods?